I know that there are F1 drivers in it. I should have elaborated when I said "not a big F1 game." I meant not a big budget fully fledged realistic game that only aims more or less at F1's fans. This seems more like a cutesy little side project Codemasters is making.

I know that there are F1 drivers in it. I should have elaborated when I said "not a big F1 game." I meant not a big budget fully fledged realistic game that only aims more or less at F1's fans. This seems more like a cutesy little side project Codemasters is making.

Hope there is a two-player split screen option - it annoys me that so many games these days expect you to play multiplayer only online - some of us do have physical friends as well as online ones!

Agreed. I was gutted when I bought the original DiRT and had hoped to do some rallies with a friend or roommate, but Codemasters didn't include the feature for some reason. Fortunately they learned their lesson with DiRT 2 and applied local multiplayer to all future racing games.

F1 RACE STARS will take players on a world tour of iconic FORMULA ONE locations, including Monaco, Silverstone and the new Circuit of Americas in Austin, Texas, recreated as fantastical racing circuits built for speed and wheel-to-wheel competition. Friends and family can share the fun too; F1 RACE STARS will deliver 4-player split-screen racing and 12-player competition alongside an extensive career mode featuring a number of Championships.

I like how they textured everything. It's like they're racing around in an old Pixar movie.

It actually reminds me a bit of Diddy Kong Racing from the N64. The German track looks like Greenwood Village or Boulder Canyon.

I'm actually quite excited about this one. Been more into sim-style racing recently but it's about time Xbox got a decent arcade racer with online multiplayer. I think it'll have a hard time taking Mario Kart Wii's status as my favourite online arcade racer, though.

It actually reminds me a bit of Diddy Kong Racing from the N64. The German track looks like Greenwood Village or Boulder Canyon.

I'm actually quite excited about this one. Been more into sim-style racing recently but it's about time Xbox got a decent arcade racer with online multiplayer. I think it'll have a hard time taking Mario Kart Wii's status as my favourite online arcade racer, though.

This. Diddy Kong Racing is still one of my all-time favourite games, and this looks like an F1 version that as a kid I'd have killed for...

Even as a 23yr old I'm still gonna get this ASAP... in fact I might even dig out DKR on Sunday after the Grand Prix

This. Diddy Kong Racing is still one of my all-time favourite games, and this looks like an F1 version that as a kid I'd have killed for...

Even as a 23yr old I'm still gonna get this ASAP... in fact I might even dig out DKR on Sunday after the Grand Prix

I still play DKR a few times every year. The tracks (and music) on that game never get old. Star City was just the best, lol.

I'm hoping F1 Race Stars resembles DKR in terms of feel, but I have a feeling that by going with randomly-selected power-ups it's going to be more like Mario Kart. Which isn't a bad thing, but it's probably not the best, either. They'd better get the weapon balance close to perfect, otherwise they're going to have a lot of people get fed up very quickly and lose faith in the idea before they get very far in.

Of course, if they've gone the sensible route and decided to award weapons to players based on their gap to the leader rather than their race position, then we may yet be in luck. Mario Kart's biggest downfall was that you could have twelve people within three seconds of the leader towards the end of the race and have two or three of them leapfrog the entire pack because they got power items just by virtue of the fact that they were running towards the rear. Only giving out power items to those lagging far behind would help sort the issue a bit, though it may remove some of the fun. Perhaps it would be best suited as an option you could toggle between--let the players decide.

Quite fun for a quick 10 minute game here and there. Not sure i'd buy it however. Shame they didn't use the voices of the real F1 drivers.. that would have been fun. Sort of like the McLaren "Tooned!" cartoons.

It's getting poor reviews from a lot of review-sites, so I doubt I'll get it for the full price. Metascore 6,6.

I can't understand all the relatively negative press it's been getting; I thought the demo was a blast and the game is securely on my wishlist for the holidays. Definitely better than all the other arcade racers I found on the Xbox Live Arcade, and the closest thing to 'Mario Kart Fun' you're going to find on Xbox or PS3, in my opinion.

The weapons were surprisingly well done, I thought. I read people complaining that they 'didn't fit' or 'weren't imaginative'; seriously, you try to come up with a fully original arsenal of weapons for a karting game and perhaps you'll see how difficult it is. The reason that people stick with the same formula across every karting game is simply because it works--and quite well. The bubbles are fine, in my opinion; they're generic enough to be unobtrusive but also effective enough to become a classic--and they operate distinctively enough to get out from underneath Mario Kart's shadow.

I like the route they've gone with the handling model--it takes the right amount of skill to use effectively, but it's not hopelessly difficult, either. I don't understand all the people literally begging for a drift mechanic in the game; if they had done that, then everyone would just be complaining that it was another Mario Kart clone.

The only thing I would've liked to see that they didn't include (something I've been waiting to see in another arcade racer for years) would have been a return of the notorious 'Wally Warp' powerup from the ancient Extreme-G: a two-stage wormhole portal that sends the unfortunate racer who hits it back as far as an entire sector. It's simple enough: you set the destination gate first, and then the trap gate second, a ways down the road and preferably around a blind corner. Drive into the second gate and you get sent back to the first. Dunno if reincarnating this thing crossed their minds or not, but either way it's probably a little too devious for such a lighthearted game.

All in all, I think they got the balance perfect with the look and the feel--it looks and plays enough like Mario Kart to be just as fun, but it doesn't make the same mistakes that Mario Kart does (annoying weapons, loud/irritating warning graphics) and has a feel that can be called unique. That's all I really wanted out of this one. Hope to get it soon.

Got the full game for my wife for her birthday. Excellent fun. The tracks have a real F1 atmosphere to them in places before going off to fantasy. I really love how all the drivers are in there even people like Pic and Glock. My only complaint so far would be the bizarre inclusion of four fictional drivers. If they wanted to pad out the grids why not include some of the f1 test drivers instead?